Amazon Is Spending as Much as $500 Million on Its ‘Lord of the Rings’ Series — Report

That's almost twice as much as the original film trilogy.

Amazon’s attempt to launch a “Game of Thrones”–style TV show won’t be cheap: Reuters reports that the streaming service’s forthcoming “Lord of the Rings” series could cost as much as $500 million. The original film trilogy, released between 2001–03, came with a comparatively modest price tag of $281 million, whereas the more recent “Hobbit” trilogy cost a reported $623 million.

“The company had offered $250 million for the rights alone; production and marketing could raise costs to $500 million or more for two seasons, one of the people said,” according to the report from Reuters. That’s three times as much as Amazon spent on the first two seasons of “The Man in the High Castle.” Jeff Bezos really wants his precious.

It’s also more than “Game of Thrones,” whose per-episode budget is reportedly in the $15 million range.